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Steam to offer new Live-like services for the PC

Live for Windows is off to a shaky start, but an announcement from Valve may …

Microsoft has been trying to make your PC act very much like your 360 with the addition of its Live service to games like Halo 2 and Shadowrun. The reaction of PC users ranges from apathetic to hostile: no one is used to paying for online play, and Windows Live needs a lot more work before it's ready for prime time. Live may face an unlikely competitor though, as Steam readies a massive update that will add many of Live-like functions to the digital distribution service—while remaining free.

Starting in July, Steam will add functions like groups, personal pages, and scheduled games. The system will also now keep track of who, you played with or against, how well you did against them, and will support integrated voice chat. These features will work across all games on Steam, mirroring the integrated nature of Live. Steam currently supports many more games than Windows Live, on a platform PC gamers are more comfortable with. And its free.

Valve may have a knockout punch stored up when these updates go live. The idea of a system that integrates many games and allows for voice chat and record keeping isn't a bad one, it's just no one wants to pay for it, and the current Live implementation feels ill-suited to PCs. Let's hope Valve handles it better than Microsoft's first efforts.